A manufacturer of spun yarn has notified Virginia officials that it will lay off 68 people at its Hillsville plant by late next month.
Parkdale Mills, based in Gastonia, North Carolina, recently sent a letter to the state saying it will enact the job cuts as of Oct. 24 at the plant in Carroll County, which is in Southwest Virginia on the North Carolina border.
The notification came about two years after Parkdale told state officials it would cut 326 jobs at the same location.
Both notices were sent to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or the WARN Act, which requires employers to provide advance notice of mass layoffs.
The recent letter says the Hillsville facility will be permanently closed. It cites a “declining economic environment created by rapidly rising energy costs.”
One part of the letter references the Oct. 24 date, while other parts reference dates in 2023, when the earlier layoffs occurred.
Virginia Works, the state agency that receives WARN Act notices, received the letter in late August.
Officials told Cardinal News that the agency contacted Parkdale to confirm that the layoffs are new and will be effective Oct. 24, but that the company has not submitted a notice with corrected dates.
The company’s plans for the site at 1 Advanced Technology Drive in Hillsville remain unclear. Parkdale Mills representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
In an article about Parkdale’s 2023 layoffs, The Carroll News reported that the company operated four plants at its Hillsville property and would close three of them that year.
Del. Wren Williams, a Republican whose House of Delegates district includes Carroll County, said he toured the Hillsville plant in 2023 and it employed more than 400 people then. He said at that time, nobody knew of the closures.
“Now, as the final wave of layoffs takes place, it is heartbreaking to lose these jobs and the proud legacy of this plant in our community. … We cannot bring Parkdale back, but we can fight to protect the businesses we still have, support the workers who are being displaced, and make sure Virginia is the best place to grow jobs and reshore American industry,” Williams said in a statement.
Carroll County Administrator Mike Watson said last week that Parkdale has not reached out to the county government about the latest round of layoffs, but that his understanding is that the company is shutting down its Hillsville operation.
“We’ll work with the Virginia Economic Development Authority in order to try to find a replacement for that once we find out what they [Parkdale] are planning to do with the building,” Watson said.
Watson said he hopes that a United Kingdom-based indoor farming company that has said it will bring 200 jobs to Carroll County will be able to hire some of the laid-off workers.
Parkdale Mills also has a location in Galax. It has facilities in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico, according to its website.
The company says it produces more than 8,000 tons of spun yarn each week.